XVI. Food Resilience in a Changing World

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For many communities, hosting large gatherings bring families together, and food systems are central to these events. We partnered with two Māori communities in New Zealand to explore how these communities embody resilience in their food systems. We collected data from two community gatherings that have been held annually for > 100 years. At Marokopa, volunteers returned from a variety of distant locations; at Tūrangawaewae volunteers generally walked or drove short distances to the gathering. Gifted contributions of food from local gardens continues a history of connection to traditional food systems at Marokopa. At Turangawaewae, most provisions were store bought, but there was a strong focus on healthy eating. Both events produced little waste. Despite a shift from self sufficiency in food systems, these communities demonstrate resilience in their hosting motivations, and a commitment to kaitiakaitanga (stewardship) in their focus on healthy foods, recycling, food waste, and intergenerational learning.

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White supremacy, capitalism, and neoliberalism disrupt communal relationships to seeds and further harm local food systems and specifically Black, Brown, and Indigenous seedways. Food sovereignty, organic, and grassroots initiatives have used seed exchanges and libraries to confront these issues. Ethnobiologists and anthropologists have contextualized biodiversity, conservation, and seed politics to advance these struggles in solidarity. However, existing scientific and policy mechanisms for exchanging seed knowledge continue to isolate seeds from their social contexts and restrict the dynamic qualities of seeds to static exchange agreements. In this paper I draw on feminist anthropology, ethnobiology, and applied anthropological research with a national seed organization to interrogate these existing ethics of seed exchanges. I argue for an in vivo seed ethic  (cf. Nazarea & Rhoades 2013), that refuses dominant neoliberal logics of scalability (Tsing 2021) and exploitation, to allow for living commitments to reciprocity; thus reflecting the dynamic nature of seeds, communities, and advocacy. 

 

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Globally, current food systems rely on a narrow range of low-nutrient plant species, overlooking historically used nutrient-rich plants, particularly in indigenous and rural diets, including Indonesia. The global movement to mainstream biodiversity for food, nutrition, and health has gained momentum, emphasizing underutilized resources. Wild and underutilized edible plants (WUEP) have emerged as promising solutions to public health and nutritional disparities, yet broader adoption lacks conclusive evidence. This study, conducted among the Sundanese community in rural West Java, Indonesia, addresses this gap by examining WUEP's potential to enhance nutrition and health. The research, employing mixed methods including ethnobotany and dietary intake surveys, examines the consumption and nutritional significance of WUEPs and their potential impact on health and well-being through a standard self-evaluated health assessment (SF-12) of 107 rural women. 

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Traditional farming systems can afford resilience to the impacts of climate change, but are also being adapted to cope with increasingly rapid changes. Understanding the relationship between climate adaptations and social changes in many Indigenous communities is important to inform ecological and cultural conservation efforts. Wixárika communities have used the milpa system to preserve ancient and sacred varieties of maize for millennia, along with squash, bean and chile varieties. To better understand how these traditional polycultures have been impacted by agricultural intensification and climate change, we carried out structured and semistructured interviews in the Wixárika community of Cerro de los Tigres, Nayarit, Mexico. The main pressures that farmers have identified were rapid changes in rain frequency and intensity, and the increasingly threatening cotton bollworm. We document the various adaptive strategies employed in the community during this unprecedented time, as well as the potential ecological and cultural consequences of these changes. 

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Wheat, barley, and other small grains face substantial yield losses under all climate change scenarios. The sowing of maslins, or mixtures which combine multiple grain species, was formerly widespread in Eurasia and northern Africa, and continues to be employed by smallholder farmers in some parts of the world, where it may represent a risk management strategy for climate variability. We carried out interviews and field experiments in Ethiopia and the Republic of Georgia to document the use of cereal mixtures as a resilience strategy, and understand their agroecology. Most interviewees reported that the mixtures afforded drought resistance, fungus resistance, and other advantages, but had declined or ceased due to exogenous pressures factors, rather than their performance. Agroecological experiments indicated that they provide a means of increasing yield and potentially yield stability compared to some monocropped components. Revitalizing Indigenous and local strategies for climate resilience may provide a way forward.

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In parts of Nagaland, India, subsistence hunting and farming lie at the intersection of ecosystems, cultural identities, and subsistence. The Lothas, one of the major tribes of the state, follow such subsistence practices which create nature dependent identities and cultures. Here, I provide an ethnographic insight into such practices of subsistence, through hunting and farming, which give us insight into multispecies relatedness and socialities in the backdrop of historical missionization and within the context of an ongoing biodiversity crisis.